The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has agreed to allow the November 2020 evaluation be included for the purposes of BDGP eligibility. Originally, the September evaluation was to be the final one before the 31st Oct BDGP deadline. Including the November evaluation (published on 24th November) means that tag/hair samples can now be returned up until the 9th September. This is a pragmatic step from DAFM in the current times and it will undoubtedly help herds meet the 31st Oct target by allowing them more time to get samples returned to the lab.
Animals will still have to be in a herd on 31st Oct, but what this change means is that an animal can be deemed eligible where it receives its first genomic evaluation on 24th November. While the final date to have samples returned is now 9th September, ICBF still encourages farmers to return outstanding samples and/or order sampling kits where required asap.
Next Evaluation Dates
For the next couple of genetic evaluations runs, ICBF is going through an extensive hardware upgrade process to ensure that we have the capacity to service the industry’s future genomic evaluation requirements (BDGP, Dairy Genomics, DNA calf registration projects, etc). In that context, we are revising the upcoming dates for genetic evaluations. The genetic evaluation publication dates for the remainder of the year are now as follows: August 4th, October 6th, and November 24th